Dynamic-Regime Shifts in Forests: Trajectories from Science to Management

The increasing incidence of extreme events (e.g. fires, insect outbreaks) in combination with ramp and press disturbances such as climate and land-use changes are seriously threatening the persistence of forest services on which human well-being depends.

In this context, forest resilience to disturbances has become a paradigm for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

Whereas many indicators have been proposed in different empirical studies, most of them are based on a static view of ecosystem states and overlook that ecosystem states, in fact, represent dynamic regimes. In contrast, many advanced theoretical approaches remain unexplored in specific forest systems.

In this sense, incorporating theoretical resilience concepts into empirical studies poses a key challenge to developing realistic management practices and policies that promote forest resilience to upcoming disturbances.

This proposal aims to fill an important scientific gap by applying resilience concepts from theoretical ecology into empirical case studies.

The main objective is to contribute to the conservation of forests and prevent their degradation and loss by improving our capability to identify resilient and tipping-point communities, assessing the mechanisms underlying post-disturbance forest dynamics, and supporting forest management and policy through useful information and tools.

This project proposes an innovative framework to assess forest resilience to pulse (e.g. insect outbreaks, fire), ramp (climate change) and press (land-use change) disturbances accounting for forest dynamic regimes as reference to compare post-disturbance dynamics.

The collaboration with theoretical and quantitative ecologists and researchers in the science-policy-practice interface from some of the most prestigious institutions in the EU will guarantee a strong contribution to the understanding of post-disturbance forest dynamics and the preservation of forest services under changing conditions.